July 1, 2015
There’s a South Burnett connection to the “pink cricket ball” news stories which have been circulating since Cricket Australia announced a pink ball would be used in a day-night Test against New Zealand in November.
Aussie bowler Mitchell Starc has said he is not convinced the ball will work, claiming it will be hard for fielders to see on the boundary.
However, another Aussie fast bowler, Wooroolin resident Carl Rackemann, actually introduced the pink ball to cricket.
In 2007, cricket ball manufacturer Kookaburra was approached by Carl to develop a pink cricket ball to use in a breast cancer charity cricket match.
Pink balls were also autographed by leading cricketers and auctioned for charity.
Since then, Kookaburra has been working with a number of international cricket boards in testing the feasibility of a pink cricket ball being used in day-night matches, instead of white balls which can rapidly lose their colour.
The shade of pink has been tweaked several times to get it just right.
It has been trialled in Sheffield Shield games this year and is now ready for its Test debut.
Footnote: In May this year, Carl announced that Kookaburra was now working on a cricket ball in a “Relay For Life” shade of purple … and handed around a sample for guests at a Mayor’s Breakfast to examine. There’s no word when the purple ball will make its debut on a cricket ground, but if it’s like its older pink brother it may one day be headed for big things.
